Employees would be more likely to stay if they could contribute more ideas

 IdeaSpies Enterprise, a platform for ideas that will improve business performance, has revealed the results of an Employee Innovation Survey.

A key finding is that over 90% of employees would be more likely to stay with their organisations if they could contribute more ideas. Significantly, 98% of lower management would be more likely to stay. Losing employees who want to contribute more would be a significant cost to these organisations.

The purpose of the survey was to determine if employees have a voice in helping their organisations succeed. Innovation was defined simply in the survey as “implementation of ideas that add value”. There are many employee engagement surveys but not employee innovation surveys.

The survey results also show that employees want more power to implement ideas they suggest. They want management to be more supportive in testing ideas. 23% said nothing happened with their ideas and many were annoyed when time was spent developing an idea and either they weren’t empowered to test it, or they received no feedback on why it wouldn’t be accepted. Feedback was shown to be important in building employee engagement.

Frustration was expressed when organisations said they wanted innovation but were not resourcing it. Management often give the illusion of wanting ideas, but then lack the skills to capture ideas in a simple way, give feedback and implement good ideas.

Tony Nimac Partner in charge of KPMG Enterprise NSW said “We trialled IdeaSpies Enterprise last year and have continued to use it. It was very well received by staff. It’s thought provoking, fun and easy to use, with no training needed. People see the tool as an opportunity to suggest ideas that could improve the way they work. In addition to specific ideas, we’ve seen themes coming from the ideas that have led to improvements. We give selected staff the opportunity to implement ideas they suggest and have benefited from improving staff engagement.”

The Employee Innovation Survey was sent to about 2,000 employees, with 18% responding and volunteering extensive comments.

A full report on the results is here.

Lynn Wood

Chief Idea Spy

lynn.wood@IdeaSpies.com

IdeaSpies Enterprise